More than 100,000 children in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray could suffer from life-threatening malnutrition in the next 12 months, a 10-fold jump over average annual levels, the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado, speaking after returning from Tigray, said that one in two pregnant and breastfeeding women screened in the region were acutely malnourished, leaving them and their babies prone to sickness.

“Our worst fears about the health and wellbeing of children in that conflicted region of northern Ethiopia are being confirmed,” she told a U.N. briefing in Geneva.

“UNICEF estimates that over 100,000 children in Tigray could suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in the next 12 months – a tenfold increase compared to the average annual caseload,” she said.

There are no mortality estimates, she added, calling for unfettered access and a “massive scale-up in assistance”.

Spokespeople for the prime minister and a government task for Tigray did not immediately respond to requests for comment on UNICEF’s estimates.

Fighting began between the Ethiopian central government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) last November. The TPLF recaptured most of its home region in June and July, but most aid is blocked.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, told a news conference this week that any barriers to access for aid groups to Tigray were being closely monitored by the government.